[Democratic Rep. Mark Walker] said, as a businessman, the Bears’ endeavor makes sense in contrast to renting Soldier Field from Chicago.
But in order to get those economic development assists, he said he will use government tools to make sure there are minimum levels of affordable housing and that the Bears meet minority contractor goals, and will guarantee to employ a diverse workforce.
“One thing I’d like to not do is treat the Bears specially,” Walker said. “The Bears are any other company that’s coming here that is offering a lot of jobs and property tax revenue. We’ll treat them like anyone else. As people move in and use the site, we typically do things like invest in roads, infrastructure, just like any other development.”
The Chicago Bears have had preliminary talks with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, state legislators and village trustees in Arlington Heights about the infrastructure help they need to support a $5 billion “stadium-anchored development” and nobody has thrown them for a loss, retiring President Ted Phillips said Friday. […]
The preliminary talks with Pritzker, local lawmakers and village trustees were aimed at “understanding the political climate” and “what makes sense” in terms of a state and local contribution.
“We don’t have a specific ask. … We’re working on that. … We’re just asking everyone to be open-minded. To not jump to conclusions and give us a chance to make our case. And I would say, 100% everyone said, `We understand what you’re telling us,’” Phillips said.
Asked whether any officials slammed the door on public funding, Phillips said: “Nobody did. Everybody said they appreciated being brought up to speed on our preliminary plans. And that’s all we wanted to accomplish. We’re gonna be transparent. That’s how we got the Soldier Field renovation done. … What it took was Mayor Daley developing some trust,” Phillips said.
“We will need help,” McCaskey said. “There are broad, long-term public benefits of this project, and we look forward to partnering with various governmental bodies to secure additional funding and assistance needed to support development of the remainder of the site. How much or what form this will take we do not know at this time. But we do know that without infrastructure support and property tax certainty, the project as described to you tonight will not be able to move forward.”
On infrastructure, the Sun-Times speculates that new entrances and off-ramps alone would run well over $100 million. As for “property tax certainty,” well, that likely means a TIF.
* Sen. Darren Bailey was on WIND this week and Amy Jacobson asked him this…
People don’t understand that there are no restrictions on abortions [in Illinois], and even 72% or 70% of Democrats want some restrictions on abortion, and I know that you’ve been hit hard about incest and rape and I just want to know where you stand on that.
Once again, here’s an explanation of Illinois law…
In Illinois, you can have an elective induced abortion until fetal viability, around 24-26 weeks of pregnancy. A fetus is considered viable if it is able to survive outside of the uterus with or without medical intervention. A healthcare provider must determine whether or not pregnancy has reached viability; viability varies and it is different for every pregnancy. After a pregnancy is determined to be viable, an induced abortion can only be done to protect the patient’s life or physical and mental health. If you are unsure whether or not your pregnancy is viable, speak to a healthcare provider to determine whether or not you can legally have an abortion in Illinois.
People need to realize that all this fear mongering That JB Pritzker is doing that is exactly what he’s doing. He’s not talking about the issues of crime, taxes and our failed education and refuses to talk about that because he has created that problem, but instead he wants to fear monger, let people assume or saying that there’s something crazy is going to happen or change now when the reality is, nothing’s going to change. … but there is no reason in the world why we Illinois, our tax money should be paying for abortion. So two things, restoring parental notification and getting rid of taxpayer-funded abortions. Those two items will be front and center on my agenda on day one as governor.
Chicago aldermen are considering an ordinance that aims to protect by law abortion providers and patients, as concerns grow that states restricting the procedure will next turn their attention toward trying to stop and criminalize people traveling across state lines for care.
The so-called “Bodily Autonomy Sanctuary City Ordinance” would prohibit the Chicago Police Department, or any other city employee, from carrying out search warrants, sharing data, or assisting in investigations related to other states’ laws that restrict “bodily autonomy” in a way that’s “inconsistent” with Illinois law.
On Wednesday, AL.com reported that a pregnant 23-year-old woman had been held in a jail for three months in Etowah County, Alabama. The reason for her imprisonment is a county rule that requires pregnant women arrested on drug charges to go through rehab and post $10,000 in cash bail before they can leave.
The woman, Ashley Banks, was arrested on charges of chemical endangerment of her fetus. She admitted she had smoked pot the day she learned she was pregnant, around six weeks into the pregnancy. Despite being ordered to attend rehab, the rehab center refused to take her, saying she didn’t meet a level of need that would warrant treatment. This left her stuck in jail, even after she developed a pregnancy complication that left her bleeding for weeks.
Women’s Med Center runs some of the only clinics in the region that provide abortions. They are set to close their Dayton and Indianapolis locations next week because of laws that restrict abortions in both states.
If Women’s Med does close in Ohio and Indiana, a few staff members are planning to open a new clinic in one of the closest states where abortion is legal.
A representative, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, confirmed to WYSO that a Women’s Med physician and manager are looking to open a new location in Eastern Illinois. The new location would be about three and a half hours away from Dayton.
Illinois clinics have seen increased demand since Roe vs. Wade was over turned in June because it’s one of the only states in the midwest with comprehensive abortion protections.
* Articles compiled by Isabel…
* Abortion bans could have far-reaching impacts on the Black community in the Midwest: “They’re disproportionately in that lower-income category… only having access to jobs, for instance, that don’t offer paid leave, or don’t offer time off to access the care that they need,” she said. … A peer-reviewed study published last year predicted the rate of Black women who would die from pregnancy-related causes would increase 33% in the years following a total abortion ban, compared to just 21% for the general population.
* Startup Choix Will Sell Abortion Pills to Patients Who Aren’t Pregnant: The company will only offer the service, also known as “advanced provision,” in US states where it’s licensed to operate — California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine and New Mexico — all of which currently allow abortion.
* California Prosecutions for Pregnancy Loss Spark Outrage, and a Bill to Stop Future Investigations: California lawmakers are now trying to pass legislation reducing the chances of law enforcement involvement in someone’s pregnancy loss. Assembly Bill 2223, introduced this session by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, a Democrat from Oakland, is a legislative attempt to codify Bonta’s guidance by preventing coroners, who often double as law enforcement officials in the state, from investigating pregnant people for stillbirths or miscarriages. It also includes a provision that would allow people criminalized for pregnancy outcomes to sue law enforcement civilly. Anti-abortion groups in California who oppose the bill have staged a public campaign falsely claiming it “decriminalizes infanticide.”
Are you concerned about election integrity? You should be. Do you realize the Constitution has a position for us to serve in to monitor election integrity. It’s called poll watchers and election judges. The poll watchers, we’re training poll watchers, I am assigning pollwatchers into high-risk precincts that we’ve located. We’re going to train you, we’re going to equip you, we’re going to be there to support you. And as you’re keeping records and doing your job and see something that’s concerning, there’s going to be lawyers available that we can call and get advice and take care of business and activity if it so happens. Our state, our future, our children are depending on this, friends.
We’ve discussed his campaign’s emphasis on Chicago poll watchers before. It’s a huge waste of resources, unless he’s preparing the grounds for some sort of excuse about how he didn’t really lose. I mean, his campaign’s State Election Integrity Coordinator worked at a radio station which organized a January 6 bus trip.
* Equality Illinois…
Equality Illinois, the state’s civil rights organization for LGBTQ+ Illinoisans, on Thursday announced Illinois General Assembly and county-level endorsements for the November 8, 2022 General Election.
“Equality Illinois is excited to announce our state legislative endorsements today as we continue to make our state fairer and more just for LGBTQ+ people,” said Justin DeJong, Board Chair of Equality Illinois, a 501(c)(4) organization. “In recent years, Illinois has been a beacon of equality and inclusion. Ensuring our beacon continues to burn brightly is so important at a time when anti-equality forces have introduced more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in state houses across the country. These endorsed candidates will continue to advance our progress as we keep fighting for equality and inclusion for all LGBTQ+ residents and visitors in Illinois.”
The full endorsement list is here. It’s quite long, so I asked my associate Isabel Miller to go through it and find Democratic incumbents who were not endorsed for reelection…
Sens. Patricia Van Pelt, Emil Jones III, Napoleon Harris III, Bill Cunningham, Patrick Joyce, Meg Loughran Cappel, Scott Bennett and Kris Tharp.
Reps. Jawaharial Williams, Angie Guerrero-Cuellar, Curtis Tarver II, William Davis, Mary E. Flowers, Cyril Nichols, Marcus Evans, Nicholas Smith, Frances Ann Hurley, Kelly M. Burke , Fred Crespo, Martin J. Moylan, Lance Yednock, Anthony DeLuca, Lawrence Walsh, Jr., Jehan Gordon-Booth, Sue Scherer and LaToya Greenwood.
* ILGOP…
Republicans from across Chicagoland joined together Wednesday night at the Jefferson Park Copernicus Center for a standing-room-only grassroots fundraising event to highlight the 65 Republican candidates running for office in Cook County and the City of Chicago - a historic number.
“Never before have we seen the grassroots energy that we’ve seen so far this cycle. A record number of Republican candidates stepped up and answered the call to run for office up and down the ballot in Chicago,” said Chicago Republican Party Chairman Steve Boulton.
Cook County Republican Party Chairman Sean Morrison added, “Voters are fed up with the dangerous ‘soft on crime’ policies of Kim Foxx and Toni Preckwinkle. We’re energized to take on their failed tax & spend policies that have given us record inflation across Cook County. It’s time to put an end to the institutional corruption of the Chicago Democratic Machine. Taxpayers can no longer afford it.”
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy echoed their sentiment, “Republicans are ready to take back our state after decades of mismanagement, corruption, and turning a blind eye to the rise in crime all across this great city. There’s no better evidence of this energy than the presence of so many great candidates who have stepped up and put their names on the ballot to take on this corrupt machine. The path to victory in November goes through Cook County and voters are clearly fed up with the status quo.”
Last month, the Cook County and Chicago Republican Party slated over 30 candidates for the November General Election. They joined the 35 Cook County and Chicago Republicans running for offices ranging from Illinois State Legislature, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, and Cook County Commissioner who were already on the ballot.
Several of their slated legislative candidates did not survive the petition process. Click here for the list of objections sustained and overruled. Only two were overruled.
* It’s tough to imagine the mild-mannered Demmer as some far-right MAGA guy, but I suppose the object here could be to make him deny that he is one…
With two months to go until the general election, it’s far past time for MAGA conservative candidate for Illinois treasurer Tom Demmer to explain why he has been a consistent anti-woman, anti-worker, pro-gun vote in Illinois.
Demmer refused to complete any candidate questionnaires during the primary, trying desperately to dodge his own far-right agenda and his support for former President Donald Trump, former Governor Bruce Rauner and GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey.
Voters are still waiting for answers to major questions such as:
• Do you stand by Darren Bailey’s extremist positions, his obstructionist voting record, and his divisive rhetoric?
• How will you prioritize fiscal responsibility after leading the voting bloc to help Rauner break the state by going two years without a budget?
• Why do you oppose common sense gun measures to restrict dangerous military-style weapons?
• Why did you vote against the Equal Rights Amendment?
• Why did you refuse to support critical health measures for working families such as a cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs?
Illinois Treasurer Mike Frerichs’ record of delivering for Illinoisans speaks for itself. Over two terms, he has:
• Created one of the best college savings plans in the country, increasing college savings from $7 billion to $17 billion and saving families more than $100 million in fees.
• Established a retirement savings program that travels with the worker, enabling over 100,000 workers who previously did not have a retirement plan to now save $85 million with Secure Choice.
• Returned a record $1.5 billion in unclaimed property and tripled the number of claims paid per year, streamlining the process such that some residents do not even have to file a claim in order to be paid.
* Pritzker campaign…
A new ad from longtime political loser Dan Proft and January 6-supporting megadonor Dick Uihlein calls Darren Bailey a “practical problem solver” — but his legislative record tells a different story.
Candidate Darren Bailey is quick to point out issues facing Illinois, but State Senator Darren Bailey has roadblocked progress by consistently voting against solutions every chance he got and is best known for trying to separate Chicago into its own state.
Following decades of financial mismanagement by previous administrations, Gov. JB Pritzker has enacted four consecutive balanced budgets and delivered an unprecedented amount of tax relief to working families. Darren Bailey voted against all four budgets and voted against pension consolidation, which takes pressure off of property taxes. Bailey also voted to raise property taxes 81% while serving on a local school board.
While Bailey often calls out “high crime rates” as a key issue plaguing the state, he’s also spent the last four years standing in the way of budgets that prioritize public safety and voting against bipartisan legislation that supports law enforcement. Bailey voted against the single largest investment to expand cadet classes in Illinois history, $10 million for a local law enforcement retention grant program, and $8 million for a multi-year equipment replacement program at the Illinois State Police.
This ad is just the latest in Bailey’s long pattern of saying one thing while doing the opposite. While he parades himself around as a “practical problem solver” — Illinoisans know the truth: on the issues that matter most, he’s all talk and no action.
* Pritzker campaign highlights the founding chair of Personal PAC…
Lifelong conservative and Winnetka-native, Marcie Love, is the latest Illinois Republican to denounce Darren Bailey and his radical plans in a new video released today. Bailey’s extremism continues to show he’s unfit for office, and Illinois Republicans are speaking out against his cruel and hypocritical stances on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and health care.
In my mind, no Republican woman and no man who loves a woman should vote for Darren Bailey. Unless you want him in your bedroom.
I’m Marcie Love, an 84-year-old lifelong Republican. I live in Winnetka.
I think of myself as a limited government person. I do not believe that the government should come between individuals and what they do in their bedroom or at their doctor’s offices.
That, to me, is very important. It’s a privacy issue.
When I hear that Darren Bailey is against abortion for rape or for incest, I think he must be a very cruel man. How can anybody be against abortion for a ten-year-old who’s a rape victim?
Rape and incest?
Tell me that. Tell me where their heart is.
If Daren Bailey wants to intrude in our private lives on the issue of choice, what else does he want to intrude in? What else, in personal liberties, does he want to take away?
…Adding… ILGOP…
llinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs has a long history of changing his facts. Last week, he lashed out against State Rep. Tom Demmer and the media for repeating comments he made about taxing retirement at the Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce Forum in 2020.
FACT: Frerichs added one argument for the progressive tax is the consideration of taxing retirement income of those who can afford it.
Daily Herald, June 17, 2020: ‘Frerichs added one argument for the progressive tax is the consideration of taxing retirement income of those who can afford it. He said he knows people who receive 6-figure yearly pensions and do not pay income taxes, but the current system doesn’t differentiate between them and retirees who barely get by on their savings or pensions.
“One thing a progressive tax would do is make clear you can have graduated rates when you are taxing retirement income,” he said. “And, I think that’s something that’s worth discussion.”
FACT: Frerichs has been flip-flopping on whether he supports combining the offices of the Comptroller and Treasurer.
Chicago Tribune, September 21, 2014: “I think his statements on Israel bonds weren’t carefully thought out. It’s been one of the better investments in the state treasurer’s office,” Giannoulias said of Frerichs.
Giannoulias also appeared critical of Frerichs’ back-and-forth on the issue of combining the offices of state treasurer and comptroller. Frerichs had supported the idea, later appeared to back off the position, but then said he was in favor of combining the offices.”
FACT: Rather than taking accountability for his statement on retirement income or repeated flip-flops on the Comptroller’s Office Frerichs said everyone else is lying.
Herald-Whig September 1, 2022: “It is good to hear that Tom Demmer agrees with me in that retirement income should not be taxed and that the comptroller’s office should be folded into the treasurer’s office,” Frerichs said, in an email to The Herald-Whig. “I’ve been saying the same thing for years. Anything that contradicts these statements simply is not true. Anyone who contradicts these statements should be asked, ‘Why are you lying?’
FACT: Frerichs has been supporting a progressive income tax as a way of raising taxes since 2007.
Frerichs introduced his own constitutional amendment to create a progressive income with SJRCA69 in 2007 and followed with two more amendments SJRCA92 and SJRCA89 in 2008, SJRCA101 in 2010, SJRCA17 in 2013.
Since becoming Leader, McConchie has dedicated himself to significantly growing his Caucus. His commitment to doing so is proven by continuing to dramatically improve fundraising results, putting Senate Republicans in a position to achieve victory this November. As our fundraising continues to accelerate, he will ensure that voters across Illinois know they have a choice this election.
*** UPDATE *** The Senate Democrats just sent over a spreadsheet showing that committees controlled by Senate President Don Harmon filed disclosure reports today totaling $2.2 million, which is of course larger than the Uihlein contribution to the Senate Republican Leader. Click here.
She’s a fraud. A liar. Esther Joy King inflates her resume. Esther Joy King claimed she ran three companies, but there’s little evidence they exist. She claims to serve on the board of a nonprofit, but get this, there’s no public record, anywhere. One job she did have inflated her title, fired in less than a year. She’s a fraud. F-R-A-U-D. Esther Joy King lied every step of the way. Don’t send her to Congress. House Majority PAC is responsible for the content of this message.
* Gov. Pritzker said this yesterday about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s sending people seeking asylum to Illinois…
At the staff level, our staffs have been in contact with one another. But they have been wholly uncooperative in Texas. They are trying to sow chaos around the country, not just here in Chicago.
The Texas Republican’s office in turn told the Sun-Times Pritzker and his staff “have at no point made any effort to reach out to Governor Abbott or his office.” […]
But Pritzker’s office countered that Illinois Emergency Management Agency head Alicia Tate-Nadeau has made repeated efforts to reach Abbott’s emergency management director, including phone calls, voice mail messages and a letter emailed on Thursday morning.
The Democratic governor’s administration provided a copy of that letter to the Sun-Times. It was sent to W. Nim Kidd, who serves as chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
The letter requests that a liaison officer be able to work with the Texas Department of Emergency Management to provide demographics and population of those on the buses, departure and arrival times and “anypertinent information related to overall medical disposition.”
WGN Investigates has learned several dozen of the migrants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent to Chicago have now been relocated to a hotel in the suburbs without advance warning to the local mayor.
“I am concerned neither the village administrator nor I were told about this,” Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso told WGN. “We want to know: Why Burr Ridge?”
Just days ago, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted Abbott for treating the migrants like “cargo” and not providing her with advance notice they were arriving.
“My frustration comes from the actions of the governor of Texas,” Lightfoot said Sunday, when the first bus load of 50 migrants arrived. “There could be a level of coordination and cooperation, but he chooses to do none of those things and instead tries to send human beings — not cargo, not freight — human beings across the country to an uncertain destination.” […]
The governor’s spokesperson issued the following statement:
The state is working with our partners at the City of Chicago and Cook County along with advocacy organizations to welcome those seeking asylum in the United States and provide them stability as they work to build a new life in Illinois. The state has a prior relationship with the hotel being used in the suburbs and their staff has done amazing work welcoming refugees and asylum seekers before, so it is interesting that local officials are choosing this specific instance to gripe to the press about this specific group of asylum seekers that consists of about 30 families. Gov. Pritzker has made it clear that Illinois is welcoming state and xenophobia has no home here.
Sources told the Sun-Times Texas officials opted to drop off the immigrants at the very public Union Station, instead of a welcoming center, where local officials had implored bus operators to send them.
Burr Ridge doesn’t have to do anything because the migrants are being brought directly to a welcoming center with experience dealing with this sort of thing. They’re not being dumped at some random bus station, where the town would have to expend finite resources to handle the influx. It isn’t remotely the same thing.
Still, a heads up might’ve been nice.
…Adding… The state also housed Afghan refugees in that hotel and not a peep was heard from Mayor Grasso or Fox News.
Juul Labs — the e-cigarette giant that just agreed to a nearly $440 million settlement with states around the country that accused it of hooking minors on vaping and masking its dangers — has given more than $120,000 to Illinois politicians’ campaign funds since 2020, records show.
In February 2021, two bills were introduced in Illinois taking aim at e-cigarettes and were overwhelmingly approved by legislators and signed into law in August 2021 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
One of the laws “prohibits the use of cartoons, video game characters and popular children’s media to promote e-cigarette products.” It also forbids sellers from marketing e-cigarettes as a “low-risk product.”
A companion law allows regulators “to conduct compliance checks of retailers . . . to investigate whether such retailers are selling tobacco products, alternative nicotine products or e-cigarettes to persons under 21 years of age.”
Among the sponsors was state Sen. Christopher Belt, D-East St. Louis, who took two campaign contributions, in 2020 and 2021, totaling $2,500, from Juul, campaign-finance records show. Belt couldn’t be reached.
* OK, not one Democratic legislator singled out in that story voted against either of those bills that whacked the vape industry. The only “No” votes on either bill were by Republican Reps. Frese, Halbrook, Jacobs, McCombie, Miller (no relation), Niemerg and Wilhour. They’re not mentioned in the story.
Rep. Jacobs received $16,250 from Juul parent company Altria, Rep. Freese received $5,000 from Altria and Rep. Halbrook received $1,500 from the company. The company gave $156,250 to House Republican caucus committees. Juul has given $10K to House Republican organizations, including $5,000 when Rep. McCombie chaired the HRO. None of those contributions were mentioned. Whatever. They’re in the super-minority, but still.
* Now, maybe those contributions to the super-majority Democrats lessened the impact of those bills. I have no idea, and, according to the above article, neither does the Sun-Times. So, perhaps the headline should be that most legislators who received money from Altria/Juul followed the Molly Ivins/Jesse Unruh maxim about legislating, which is an expanded version of the headline on this post.
So far this year, Chicago police have made an arrest in less than a quarter of all 2022 murders, according to city data. Meanwhile, police data obtained by the investigative news outlet The Trace and analyzed by WBEZ show that of the cases that are solved, the median length of a Chicago homicide investigation is about six weeks. Many cases take far longer.
It can be an agonizing wait for grieving families seeking justice, but police spokeswoman Margaret Huynh said sometimes a “lengthy process” is necessary for “complex cases that require evidence such as witness corroboration and forensic evidence.”
“Laboratory results, forensic results … are a bit of a problem for police,” said Thomas Hargrove, executive director of the Murder Accountability Project. “Because everybody’s overwhelmed … especially in Chicago.”
“If you’re looking for a city to get away with murder, Chicago ought to be on your shortlist. And that in itself promotes more murder, and then more murders overwhelm the police. So you know, it’s a cycle that constantly feeds itself, ever downward.” [Hargrove said]
Justice Mary Kay O’Brien has always believed when Illinois courts are fair - We all rise. Her courtroom is a place where rights and freedoms are protected fairly.
From growing up on an Illinois farm to being an Appellate Court Justice, she’s devoted her career to fighting for fairness
Now, with Roe v. Wade being overturned, women’s freedom to choose in Illinois is at risk.
Justice O’Brien is endorsed by Personal PAC and other pro-choice groups.
